GILROY
– It’s no secret the Gilroy Garlic Festival draws visitors from
all across the country and even from the far corners of the
globe.
Every year, visitors from a place close to this city’s heart
– yet halfway across the planet – come to the festival to
experience the best that their sister city has to offer.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – It’s no secret the Gilroy Garlic Festival draws visitors from all across the country and even from the far corners of the globe.
Every year, visitors from a place close to this city’s heart – yet halfway across the planet – come to the festival to experience the best that their sister city has to offer.
Residents of Takko-Machi, Japan, were officially welcomed to the Garlic Festival during Friday’s Opening Ceremonies. The four women, including the small town’s garlic festival president and Garlic Lady, spent the morning taking in the many garlicky sights and sounds to be found in Christmas Hill Park.
Satoe Hara is Takko-Machi’s Garlic Lady, the equivalent to our Garlic Queen. Wearing traditional Japanese dress, a sparkling crown and carrying an intricately decorated tiara, Hara attracted the attention of festival visitors as she exited the Cook-Off area and took the scenic route toward Gourmet Alley.
The group stopped to watch a garlic topping competition in a circle of hay bales.
Mieko Miyamura, Takko Town Office representative, whipped out her video camera to record the action. Keiko Sato, co-sister city coordinator, and Reiko Hashimoto, Takko-Machi’s Garlic Festival president – Takko-Machi’s first female president – joined in when the crowd clapped and cheered.
Takko-Machi’s festival, which will be held Oct. 2-3 this year, offers a much smaller variety of garlic-flavored foods and Miyamura looked forward to sampling as much as possible.
“I want to try to eat all the food,” Miyamura said.
She was particularly looking forward to alligator.
“My friend said it’s delicious and we don’t usually eat alligator in Japan,” she said.
As the women strolled through Garlic Mercantile, Miyamura picked up a book on Gilroy’s history to take home with her.
Sato said she was impressed with the size of the festival and the number of vendors. Takko-Machi’s festival attracts 7,500 people each year, Miyamura said, a number comparable to the town’s population. Planned by the town office, about 400 people put on the party, compared to the 4,000 volunteers needed to run Gilroy’s celebration. About 20 vendors sell garlic products.
The sister cities’ Coordinator of International Relations, Wendy Conrotto, said she prepared the visitors for Gilroy’s high temperatures and Miyamura seemed unfazed.
“The weather here, it’s hot, very hot and dry,” she said. “In Japan it’s very hot and humid.”
Hara, the Garlic Lady, started her day at the festival early in order to be interviewed by a local television news show.
She said Gilroyans were already trying to make her feel at home.
“My host family made Japanese food for us,” Hara said, “like the food I am used to.”
The group also had eaten at Gilroy restaurant Ninja Sushi.
“That’s interesting,” Sato said. “We don’t have the rolls.”
